We all know Foxy Brown as a multi-platinum artist who gave us the sultry “Get Me Home” and the strip club anthem “Touch Me Tease Me.” But do we really know the journey of this heroine and what it took for her to reach legendary status?
After winning rap talent contests at 15, Foxy caught the attention of the production team Trackmasters. They soon invited her to rap on LL COOL J’s track “I Shot Ya,” where she delivered the lines “ooh I’m jinglin’ baby, I got crazy Dominicans who pay me,” and later “sexin’ raw dog without protection” — with all the bravado we expect from our rap heroes.
Foxy signed with Def Jam in ’96 at the age of 17, rapped under the mentorship of JAY-Z, and debuted with the platinum album Ill Na Na. History now credits Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim as the MCs who broke what Billboard called “hypermasculinity” — with lyrics as explicit and imagery as sexual as they wanted. But for Foxy, it was never a “golden path sprinkled with fairy dust.”
Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand (Foxy’s real name), the daughter of West Indian/Trinidadian parents from Park Slope, Brooklyn, was born with the qualities and mindset that allowed her “to pick up the sword and slay the dragons in her path.”
